Understanding Competency-Based Medical Education

Editor’s Note: This post is the first of two on the topic of competency-based medical education. Check back next week to read more on this topic. By: Robert Englander, MD, MPH, Terri Cameron, MA, Amy Addams, Jan Bull, MP, and Joshua Jacobs, MD Dr. Englander is the former senior director of competency-based learning and assessment at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Ms. Cameron is director of curriculum programs at the AAMC. Ms. Addams is director of competency-based admissions at the AAMC. Ms. Bull is lead specialist in competency-based learning and assessment at the AAMC. Dr. Jacobs is senior director of electronic portfolios at the AAMC. Medical education is in the middle of a paradigm shift across the continuum from premedical studies through practice to competency-based medical education (CBME). [1] The shift from the old style of medical education, referred to as “Structure/Process” education, originally outlined by Abraham Flexner in 1910, [2] to a competency-based system of education requires four components: (1) identifying the outcomes; (2) defining performance levels for each competency; (3) developing a framework for assessing competencies; and (4) continuous evaluation of the CBME program to see if it is indeed producing the desired outcomes—in this case, competent physicians. [1] In this blog post, we will describe the current state of the first two steps—identifying the outcomes and defining performance levels. In a follow-up blo...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Featured Guest Perspective CBME competency framework competency-based medical education domains of competence milestones Source Type: blogs